


Untitled

by MissIves



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, I refuse to tag that bitch show GoT
Genre: F/M, The "Gendry is already a memeber of the BWB when they catch Arya AU", featuring an older Arya cause of reasons, i'm a dinasour from the "lime"/"lemons" age lmao, in which i can't do oneshots because word vomit, maybe slightly ooc arya cause she's older, reasons being the rating of this fic, she's still her cool bamf sensitive self though, what is mature what is exlicit?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 00:10:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20144302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissIves/pseuds/MissIves
Summary: Gendry is riding with the Brotherhood without Banners, when they stumble upon a princess on the run.He is tasked with guarding her, but maybe he should've guarded his heart from her.





	Untitled

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an amazing tumblr post by user gendry. Apologies in advance for the behemoth size of this thing, any typos or mistakes, English is not my first language.

They knew there was someone in the woods, but they were making a good job of keeping their tracks hidden. Whomever it was, it was smart. Little to no footmarks, no apparent marks in the foliage, no remains of fires or meals being cooked or eaten. The only reason their group had figured it out was the skin of a rabbit, clean cut, and the occasional sound of something moving not _ too _ far away. Still, it took a couple days to stumble upon them. It was almost as if they were too tired of evading them and just let themselves be found.

A skinny lad, clearly so underfed he had barely fit the jerkin he wore, a fat kid, a little girl. The skinny lad had grey eyes like an angry storm and carried a sword with a little too much ease.

"Do not come any closer."

_ Oh. _

"Now, girl, we don't mean harm." Thoros said as Anguy prepared his bow. _ Great way to deliver the message _. "We just want to know why are three children walking alone in the woods. Haven't you heard there's a war?"

The girl's expression darkened, but she remained silent as the fat boy opened his mouth. "Of course we know there's a war! We've been serving—"

"That's enough Hot Pie," the girl did not need to raise her voice, the boy seemed quick to do as she told him, which meant his name was _ actually _ Hot Pie. Gendry gathered she had been the one keeping them alive, from the way the boy cowered behind her and the little girl gripped her hand.

"Do tell us boy," Thoros began as he took a step forward, "who were you serving?"

The girl raised her sword, standing straight and proud. _ Don't be an idiot. _ Her steel eyes landed on each and every single one of then, and Gendry couldn't help to shiver when they cut through him. He gripped his hammer tightly, even though it was unnecessary. They were almost a dozen, them just a girl and a fat boy holding a sword, and only she seemed to be able to use it.

"Do not come any closer, I won't repeat a second time. This is the last warning" When she finished saying the words, the brotherhood erupted in laughter. Gendry would've too, if he hadn't see her small smirk at their mocking.

_ Fuck. _

"Thoros..." Gendry began, but before he could tell him not to underestimate her, the girl bared her teeth at them.

But the growl did not come from her. No, the _ growls _ came from behind her. Howling too. 

The fat boy began shaking, holding on to the girls arm. "Arry."

"Shut up, Hot Pie".

"The _ wolves _, Arry."

They're all too shocked to do anything when a monstrous snarling beast emerges from deep within the woods. Grey fur, yellow eyes, snarling and followed behind by wolves that would never be small, but looked so compared to the giant wolf.

"Nymeria," the girl called, "to me."

And then to their utter horror, the she wolf did as it was told, big heavy steps scaring them as they approach, coming to stand between next to its mistress. She looked less like a girl now, more like some witch woman, a solemn yet fierce look in her face. 

"The direwolf." Harwin muttered behind Gendry, and before any of them could do anything, he stepped forward. Even the girl seemed surprised of his nerve.

"Stop!"

"What are you doing you idiot?!"

Anguy raised his bow, arrow at the ready to be let loose. Gendry raised his hammer. Hot Pie shook violently.

"Harwin?" 

Harwin took the knee before her. "Princess Arya."

*/*

When they arrived at the inn, the princess raised a silent eyebrow to everyone and smiled slightly only to Harwin when he dutifully slid a chair to offer her a seat. She nodded at the little girl and the fat boy, and patred the little girls head when she sad next to her and held on to her arm.

That was her warmest moment.

Gendry sat across from her, taking in the badly cut short hair, in the oversized jerkin, the permanent frown. She didn't really pass for a boy, but she tried damn hard to, for protection surely.

She lifted her eyebrow at his staring, and stared right back. It was when Gendry noticed her attention to his arms that he looked away, annoyed. 

There were offers for food and protection to the kids. But the wolf girl saw right through it.

"So am free to go?" She raised her chin, the way only high born know how to do.

"Well, no." Thoros smiled. "We will protect you."

Next to the wolf girl, the little child whimpered and shook her head no.

"Right. So I'm your prisoner."

"No, my lady, we just want to—"

"We mean to ransom you, my lady," Harwin answered honestly, earning a glare from all of them, "to your brother, of course."

"The King in the North will pay us handsomely for his sister." Thoros explained with an smile.

Princess Arya was not impressed, sending a reproachful look on Harwin's direction. "You were my father's man. He _ trusted _ you."

Gendry remembered the Hand. Remembered being asked things. Remembered being sent away by his master along with the king's man, to eventually go North.

"We used to be King's men, most of us." Thoros admitted sadly, "

"Times have changed, my lady."

"_ Princess. _" Lem clarified.

"It can't be that bad, Arry." Hot Pie said excitedly, his eyes on the kitchen, "I could work here or anywhere. You will see your brother now, no need to travel all the way to Winterhell."

"_ Winterfell. _" Harwin and the girl swiftly corrected.

"Now if our horses are done resting—"

"Me and Weasel gotta piss first." The little mute girl, _ Weasel _, finally did something by nodding rapidly. "We won't piss standing on the side of the road likeyou lot."

"But you've—" Hot Pie quickly shut up when after a stomping sound came from underneath the table.

Thoros smiled. "Fine, my lady. Gendry will go with you."

"What?" Gendry asked as he ignored the girl's huffing and rolling eyes. She didn't wait for him as she stood up and beckoned the little girl to do the same. "Why me?"

"Cause you finished your ale and I still got half a tankard left."

It was all explanation he got before being pushed to follow the girl. He made it out the door barely a moment after her, expecting to see her by the treeline, only to find her gone.

_ Fuck. _

One of their horses was gone.

Gendry was quick to open the door to the inn and shout at Harwin, their fastest rider. He didn't wait for him to get on a horse and go after them. If they wanted quick escape they would've gone by the King's Road, and surely North as the girl longed to. But as he was about to gallop off, Harwin stopped him.

"No! This way!" He made for the deep forest, with barely a pass between trees.

"She'll want to put space between us! The King's road is the easiest way!"

"That girl is half a horse, trust me!" So he did. Gendry was not a good rider, and Harwin quickly put space between them. But some time later, Gendry caught up with the Northerner looking to his left.

"What is it?"

"The trail keeps that way, there's fresh horse marks that way," Harwin pointed to the right,"but someone clearly tried to make its way through the bushes that way."

"She's trying to trick us. Or split us." Gendry was somewhat impressed, though annoyed.

"She was always smart."Harwin smiled. " I'll try to catch up to the horse, see if you find anything that way".

Gendry did not fancy setting his horse to the deep wildness of the forest while that wolf pack was nearby. _ Damn this princess. _ A part of him thought she had kind of earned the right to be well left alone, but the coin from the ransom would be good, and if the brotherhood paid their debts every once in a while they would be better received, and Gendry fancied going back to the Heddle inn with some coin to have the forge's roof repaired. 

It's not long before he finds them, well, more like luckily stumbles on lady Arya trying to have the girl climb her shoulders.

"Shit, Weasel, run!"

The wolf jumps outta nowhere and goes for Gendry's horse, throwing him off. He was dazed for a moment and caught himself back only to see the girl make a run for it. He went after her as fast as he could, but she was quick, only her visible short hair becoming visible as a blur through the trees.

_ She'll tire eventually _. It was clear they had stumbled on the girl in a weakened hungry state, not to mention she probably was also trying to find the little girl.

Gendry found her catching her breath behind a tree. He _ almost _ passed by her, she had hidden herself good, but he saw her and took out his knife. He hoped the wolf was far away.

His knife was at her throat quickly.

"Your coming with me." He ordered as he kept her pushed against the tree. She just liften her chin, undaunted.

"Is that so?"

His stomach twisted at her wicked grin. They were both out of breath, little open cuts in their faces from having passed by twigs and branches too fast. Gendry looked down to see the knife to his gut. When his eyes looked up, she was breathing sharply, her chest rising up and down as sweat and tiny drops of blood ran down both their faces. They were far too tired for a fight.

And yet Gendry had to forcibly take off that knife. No sooner had his hand made a grab at her wrist, she locked her leg behind his and sent them both tumbling to the ground. She was not strong, but she was quick. Gendry could grasp her but before his hand got a firm hold on her, she'd slid out and slip away.

They were both a huffing gasping mess by the time he pin her to the ground. No more smiles from her, just plain irritation.

"Let me go."

"I don't hear the wolves, so, no. The Brotherhood will be looking for us."

"Harwin was my father's man." She twisted her hips against him, pressing herself to his cock and making his body jump in surprise. "Is this how you want him to find us?"

Gendry gripped her tightly this time, enough for it to hurt, and pulled her up.

"Fine, you're coming with me."

He began pulling her with him, but she wouldn't budge.

"I'm not going anywhere."

He had _ had it _ with this girl. He squared her by the shoulders and pulled her close, her chin tilting up to look at him definitely, fire in her eyes.

"If you don't come with me, I'll just throw you over my shoulder, you understand?" He looked her up and down, her eyes piercing him with hatred. "Is that what you want?"

"Fuck you."

Gendry couldn't help but laugh as he grabbed her firmly by the arm and began tugging her along. 

"What kind of lady are you?"

"This fucking kind."

And she was off again. But she was tired and it didn't take long for him to catch her. It was the same game again, but he was tired too and he couldn't quite keep himself off her when she sent them tumbling to the ground. And her damn wriggling.

Her eyes went from anger to amusement in an instant when she felt his cock go stiffer. Gendry hated to admit that her eyes were far too enticing to keep indifferent. 

"If you let me go I can help with—"

"Not happening." Gendry said as he pulled her up again and kept picturing Lem's naked arse as he bathed in the river. "Are you gonna keep running away?"

"How? When you left me breathless?" Arya began walking beside him. Suddenly she turned her head toward him, through her eyes were far behind. "WEASEL! COME HERE"

_ Seven hells. _

"Was that necessary? Nearly broke my fucking ears."

"I take care of the girl. She's pack. The pack stays together."

Gendry felt the little feet start following them soon.

"Where's the wolf?"

"Nymeria can't be next to me all the time. Her pack is _ huge _, they must hunt through most of the day. But don't worry... you'll see them again," her smile was terrifyingly beautiful, "men are her favorite prey."

*/*

"You must guard her."

"Why me?"

Tom played some of the strings, singing slightly off tune in his mirth."But you can be my forest love and me your forest lass."

Gendry crossed his arms. "She's a little shit."

"Hey!" Harwin pointed one menacing finger at his direction, Gendry swatted it away. "She's a Stark, the North's princess, watch your mouth."

"I won't. She's a little shit."

"She got him all tangled up and angry, see?" Tom said, and then avoided a lazily thrown fistfrom Gendry. 

"Fuck off, Tom."

"You're the one who asked to leave that forge. We were fine coming to you for mending and repairs while you took care of the inn." Thoros admonished him, drunk and obviously pissed at Gendry's complaining. "She's calmed now, and Harwin made her promise she won't throw the wolves at us as long as we take her to her brother."

"How kind of her."

"Listen kid, she's coin we need. You guard her with your life, no matter how much a pain in your arse she is."

_ I'm not a kid _, he wanted to say, but it made little sense. Saying it would certainly made him one in their eyes.

*/*

"We have place in the inn for that girl, we would take care of her,m'lady." Gendry tried, he _ tried _. He had been taking care of orphans by a while now, the little girl was safer in one place than dragged from one danger to another.

"Don't call me that." She chomped on her leg, sitting next to him as they made camp. "I'm not a lady."

"Weren't you a lord's daughter and lived in a castle?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes but—"

"Fancy that, choosing when you want to be a lady and when not. Sure never had a chance to choose not to be a poor lowborn bastard."

"Shut up and eat your rabbit." She shoved the leg at him, and she had only shared it with Weasel. They had made camp as Anguy looked for something to kill, but Arya had patiently made a trap and gotten herself a fat hare.

"Thanks."

"I was never much of a lady." Arya admitted. "My sister was pretty and played the harp and all that. She and her friends just left me be."

"Never had much friends," he didn't know why Gendry admitted that, she was just easy to talk to, "was much better at working than anything else."

"Oh I had friends alright, just not the ones I was suppose to," Arya shrugged, and began undoing the knots off her trap, "what did you work at?"

"Armorer's apprentice." Her eyes light up.

"You made swords?"

"Helped making them." He took his sword out, slowly, and offered it hilt first. "This one is the first one I made. The forge and the steel wasn't great but it was good work."

"Can I?"

"Not a chance, I'm not an idiot."

She smiled wickedly. "Men usually underestimate me."

"I'm sure." He seathed the sword. "You know how to use that?"

They hadn't disarmed her. It made little sense, they needed her alive to ransom her and the woods were dangerous. Besides, the sword was just weight if she wanted to run from them.

"If course I do! I had to learn to defend myself when I was fostered at Bear Island." Her eyes looked down, she picked a stick and played around in the dirt. "My brother Jon gave me a sword before he left for the Wall, my father hired me a Braavosi teacher."

The Hand had visited him before Tobho told him to leave King's Landing. Soon after that he was taken by ser Beric's men, and then he after the Mummer's Ford everything had changed.

"We should move. The Bloody Mummers are due a raid to the west this week."

Gendry turned his head to her, shocked. "You know when and how they do their rounds and raids?"

"I served at Harrenhal for months." She only needed to whisper, she was that close.

"We need to tell them."

"I think not." Arya laid back on the grass, hands behind her head. "If they attack us, Weasel and I will sneak away while you all fight."

"You really are a pain in my arse, you know?" Gendry stood up to go tell Thoros and Lem about her words, surely they could leave the hunting for the next day if it meant staying alive.

But no sooner had he taken two steps away when Jack shouted.

"Look out!"

"Shit!"

Gendry was not fast enough for this girl, he really wasn't. They were gonna kill him if he lost her, and then there was the wolf too. _ Fuck _. They would never let him forget it if he lost her.

"Are you really leaving that kid behind?!" He shouted, coming to a stop in a small clearing between the trees. Gendry could only see green, and his eyes did not hear the wolves, or much movement. He just have to keep taunting her. "We'll leave her! She won't last two days alone in the forest!"

Suddenly Gendry was pushed down to the floor from his side, making him breathless. 

"You! Said!" Arya grabbed his hair and landed a pathetic punch on his chest. "You would take care of her!"

Gendry made to grab her, but she turned her body quickly and he ended up hugging her leg and pushing her closer, one of his hand trying to get a grasp of her arm. She had firm tights, and was flexible enough that while one of his hand kept a hold of her leg, she twisted her body to try to punch him. He had to let her go to protect his face, and it landed on his arm somewhat pitifully.

He hooted, watching her face turn red with irritation. "I'm stronger than you." He grabbed her by her hips firmly.

Arya stopped her struggling for a moment. Suddenly, Gendry felt eerily cold as she slowly put her hands one on each side of his face. As she lowered her upper body, he noticed he could count the freckles on her skin, smells her breath, see the little strands of her hair that were growing longer than others. She was panting and he was breathing unevenly.

"Gendry."

She said his name slowly and so _ so _ breathlessly, as if a breath away from fainting. Wasn't that what ladies did? Faint?

He gulped down the knot in his throat, a tingling sensation settling on his stomach.

"What?"

She lowered her head even further, her breath now next to his ear. She pressed all her body to his, and damn her, he was going to die under a girl who was a quarter of his weight. 

"I'm faster than you."

And she was off again, but Gendry saw that she was running back in the direction of the camp. Arya wasn't going to ruin that Weasel girl to save herself from outlaws.

But she might ruin him.

*/*

"You should stand sideface."

"Sideface?"

"Sideways. Makes you a smaller target."

Gendry rolled her eyes. He supposed a fancy rich girl was going to use fancy words. He didn't need lessons from a girl, even if she was smart and capable. He didn't choose the outlaw life to go around doing some princess biding.

"As you say m'lady."

"I've told you not to call me that."

"As m'lady commands."

"You're hopeless. Look at that awkward way your arm is holding out your sword. One hit and your hand will let go, they will disarm you in the blink of an eye."

"Just shut up. Will you?"

Arya stood up slowly. It made him squirm. He knew it meant something when her eyes went sharper, her moves slower. She always managed to make him feel like prey.

"If I shut up, I will run. Unless you want another chase?" She bit her lip, and when she released it, it colored darker and looked even fuller than before.

Behind Gendry, someone whistled and Arya lifted a single eyebrow, a taunt if there ever was one. 

He was in no mood to end up alone in the forest with his cock half hard and his heart beating rapidly in anguished wanting.

"More tips?"

A smile broke through her lips.

*/*

The days passed slowly when life was riding by the forest away from the road, their pace slow, every chance of getting game being taken. Arya was not allowed a horse on her own, as Harwin told them she was probably too dangerous on one. 

Apparently the girl had learned how to shoot arrows from a riding horse at three and ten, to the annoyance of all her brothers and her mother.

When he heard the story, Gendry had turned his head back to look at her. She was behind him on the horse, lazily holding on to him as if having to pretend she couldn't do this on her own was beneath her.

"You really were an awful lady, weren't you?"

Arya frowned and bit her lip. "I could manage a household alright. I knew what the servants were suppose to be doing at each hour of the day, and what their work entailed, and I made sums and I know when to spend and how much to keep a castle running. But my mother and septa Mordane despaired of me."

She sounded sad, which sounded stupid to him, because he knew she had been hungry and beaten and forced into work like a slave in Harrenhal, so why feel sad about not being a good .

"No sewing handkerchiefs to give to knights as your favor."

"There are few knights in the North," she looked away then, to Weasel holding on to Tom on his horse, "besides my septa said I had the hands of a blacksmith."

Gendry looked down to her hands on his abdomen. They were dirty, true, but compared to his they looked as delicate as hands could be.

"These soft little things?" His hand let go of the reins to hold one of her own, examining. Her hands had seen work, true, but were not rough to the touch or particularly unpleasant. Quite the contrary. He spent longer than was necessary inspecting them. Gendry coughed before dropping her hand. "You couldn't even hold a hammer."

"Could so."

"Could not."

"Could _ so. _"

"Could _ not. _"

"Oh Seven hells," Lem groaned, "can't you two just wait until midday to start your bickering?"

*/*

“Stay here, you and Weasel will be safe.”

She had rolled her eyes at that.

“It’s true, my lady.” Ser Beric said with a kind smile. He always had polite words for the princessly daughter of the Hand of the King. “You’re the bravest among us, but we must keep you safe.”

When the battle was done, and they counted their wounds, Gendry had been the first to run to see that they were safe, Harwin close behind. They had stopped dead on their tracks when they stumbled on their captives.

Arya and the little girl were surrounded by bodies, wolves feasting on them. None of the brotherhood dared step closer, even thought Weasel did not seem scared at all, even though Arya was happily cuddling with her direwolf, the she wolf covered in men’s blood.

“I don’t need you to keep me safe.”

*/*

Gendry could tell she hated the man they called the Hound.

He would read the disappointment in her face when Beric was defeated, and her indignation that after being brought back to life, ser Beric decided to let him go.

"I'm sorry," he didn't know why he was so sorry, he had no idea who the boy she shouted for, Mycah, was or why he was so important, "I really am."

"Me too."

He wondered if he had to apologize for stopping her from killing The Hound. Gendry had to hold her rather strongly, dropping them both to the ground carelessly. She didn’t seem to mind the rough treatment, but she was sad anyways.

"I know he was a bad man". Gendry didn't really understand the Red God. But he didn't think he care much.

"My father was a good man, and no Gods spared him." Arya looked at her boots after those words, breathing deeply as if whatever came next pained her. "I never knew for sure if he was happy with me or disappointed. First time I ruined a promise of marriage by kissing with a stableboy, father was sad. But then when I got sent to Bear Island and later to White Harbor, my father smiled when the lords told them good things of me. Sometimes I'd ruin my dresses and escape to the woods and he'd laugh, sometimes I'd mess everything and he'd be firm and cold."

"He loved you." Gendry didn't know what felt loved felt like, but it sounded a bit like that. He remembered his mother singing to him, as well as shouting at him from wandering away from her. Maybe that's what it was like. A mix of feelings no one could explain.

"I know." Arya rubbed away a tear who escaped her eyes. The tears made her eyes shine brighter. "Robb had me betrothed to a Frey to secure an alliance, I found out in Harrenhal..." She grimaced before continuing." I will make my father proud, and do what's best for our family."

"You will marry a lord, take his name and go to his castle to give him babies?" It irked him. He didn't know why. Maybe because it sounded like the idea did not make her happy at all, and Gendry thought she didn't deserve more misery.

"Don't be stupid. I won't take _ his _ name." Arya frowned. "I will always be Arya Stark. And I won't just stay in his castle to give him babies."

"Pretty sure that's what women do."

"No it's not! You're infuriating!"

"Pardon me, m'lady."

"Just_ shut up, _ stupid." This time, the insult came with a punch to his arm before she stomped away. Gendry laid back laughing as she huffed and puffed and took Weasel to tend to the horse.

*/* 

It was after they came to a town and he asked the blacksmith to use his forge a little for some mendings that she _ finally _ granted him a compliment.

"You're good." Arya said as she bit into an apple, offering him some.

"I know." Gendry could be smug too.

"You could be an apprentice in some castle, make sword commissioned by lords."

"Don't care," Gendry shrugged, his eyes going to the kids looking at them, looking at Arya's apple like a blessed sweet pie from the Street of Flour. "So what? I serve some fat lord who will get rich on my earnings and then send me to fight other men as poor as me, not caring if I live or die?"

"Not all lords are like that!" Arya frowned, and Gendry knew she was getting ready to defend her family of being accused of being just like any other of their kind.

"Well most of them are."

"Then you get rid of those until you put good lords in power." Arya crossed her arms and gave her apple to one of the kids. Then she muttered something that his hammering drowned.

"What was that?"

"I said, maybe some women in power too." She looked at the town with sadness. "We birth babes, we raise children. Common women help their husbands in their business and trades and keep their house in order. Noble women run a household, look up advantageous political marriages, surrender themselves to be sent away from home to make alliances with strangers for the benefit of their house. We survive through rapists and robbers and war." She lifted an eyebrow and tilted her chin towards him. "I say, we need more women in power. We’re clearly the better breed."

“I think we need common people in power.” He said seriously. “I mean, a noble woman running the Seven Kingdoms? Gods help us.”

Arya looked at him as if she was about to run him through with the nearest sharp tool she could grab, but when Gendry laughed at her livid face, she laughed too.

She looked pretty.

*/*

She got all pissed when he teased her for the dress lady Smallwood put her in, even though he got it ruined in the forge. Arya stood triumphant about their agreement to a truce, even though Gendry was pretty sure he won because he had her pinned to the ground and she was pretty helpless.

But then she had spoken.

"If you wanted to touch me so badly, all you had to do was ask."

Gendry had been so surprised that Arya had gotten the best of him, twisting herself out of his grasp. Before he had a chance to act, she had gotten her hands on a knife and put the tip of it on his neck. It surprised him that he did not fear for his life at all. Or that she'd take the chance to run. If his heart was beating madly, it was for other reasons entirely. 

Arya moved her head to keep her growing locks out of her face. Her acorn dress was torn enough he could see her shift underneath, and muddy too, but her skin was washed and hai brushed and looked…

"A soldier can't afford to be distracted like that." Her tease was torture, especially because one more second of her fidgeting and she’d feel him get hard as an iron.

"I didn't get distracted." His fast response was simply too stubborn to have any truth behind it.

Arya just smiled and dropped the knife, offering her hand to pull him up. Gendry reluctantly took it.

"C'mon. I want to know what's being said of Robb and the war."

The truth was that in the end Arya was pushed by Lady Smallwood to put on an even more delicate dress, and she looked uncomfortable and it made him laugh a little too loud (earning a smack on the back of the head), Gendry could not deny he absentmindedly wished he’d tear off that dress too.

*/*

Gendry wasn't a fool, so he realised every time the Brotherhood set about to have some small battle with the Mountain's men or the Brave Companions or rogue Lannister or Stark soldiers, Arya got more anxious.

She'd often ask Thoros about their path and where they were going and whatever small amount of amiableness had began would be replaced with the giant wolf making an odd appearance at their camp, and the sound of wolves howling in the night. Arya didn’t make threats with words, but they’d be reminded.

So Gendry figured the best way to keep the she-wolf in control was actually to attempt to treat her with some measure of respect. He knew a thing or two about being treated like a kid when you weren’t. And that’s how they’d often hunt together, after he had convinced the others she wouldn’t escape or use the bow against him as long as they had Weasel.

And Gods, she was annoying. She’d run off, making herself lost to him among the trees, until he was walking in circles, breathless and tired, and then she’d show up with rabbit or goose, laughing at his expense. He’d get annoyed that she had grown up hunting and could mock his pathetic attempts at catching game, but then she’d share her catch with Weasel and him.

Arya did not seem so much scared of them as irritated they had gotten hold of her and Weasel. She didn’t seem scared much of anything, and Gendry wondered if it had something to do with being a Northerner or being a war prisoner or being a mighty highborn from an old powerful house.

During the day, when they rode, hunted and talked and he learned about how she lived in Bear Island and how she’d spy the letters lord Tywin sent from Harrenhal to repeat it to the Northern prisoners, Gendry had to work hard to remember the girl who whined whenever he caught her and who’d bit her lip when their party got distracted from their goal dispatching justice from pillaging deserters. At nights, when she slept beside him while holding Weasel close, she’d seem less like a highborn woman and more like just a girl, young and hungry. But he’d remember that glint in her eyes, that manner of walk. She’d seem a lot more like a predator, and he often wondered when the girl ended and the wolf began.

It was certainly easier to think of that, than to think of how her tights felt when she sat on his shoulders to give water to Northern prisoners, or to think of her body pressed to his when they rode through the countryside. Once, he let her lead the horse, and he couldn't decide what he enjoyed most, her smile or the feel of her ass against his crotch. Or how he could sometimes catch Arya staring, her stormy eyes would be fixated on him and when their eyes crossed paths, her snowy pale skin would blush ever so slightly.

Gods help him, he couldn’t decide if she was ice he wanted to melt or fire he wanted to be burned in.

*/*

"I need a bath." She announced it like it was no big deal. Standing there as they all prepared to camp, the men suddenly stopping to look up to her "Weasel too."

Weasel nodded enthusiastically. For greater effect, she scratched her head. Arya was much more graphic, she literally lifted her arm and made a show out of smelling her underarms.

"It's nasty."

Gendry couldn’t help the laughter. Anguy smiled and shook his head too. She really was a terrible lady.

"We may rest of the Peach," Tom smiled at her understandingly, "They will let you bathe there."

Arya crossed her arms and lifted her nose haughtily. Her hair was growing and the tips of it were reaching past her chin, even curling a little. As she crossed her arms, she threw one hip to the side, as if to accentuate and distract from the fact she was about to become a spoiled brat.

"I _ will _ bathe, or—"

"Fuck it, I don't want to hear wolves howling keeping me awake all night because the she-wolf is pissed." Jack tsked and carried on laying his sleeping furs close to the light. "Gendry go with them to the closest stream."

Gendry's eyes snapped from her damn hips to her face, that infuriating smirk on her lips. She didn't wait long before she took Weasel's hand and went in search for the water. He made a torch out of their fire and set about following her, eyes throwing daggers at Tom, who began playing familiar notes on his harp.

The first thing he noticed was that Weasel was not with her. Nor the wolf, that usually made its way to them when the rest of the Brotherhood was far away.

"Where's Weasel?" he asked hoarsely.

"Does it matter?" she asked and Gods, he hated her. He truly did. It really didn't matter.

He hated the way she bit her lip, he hated the way her dark eyelashes fell heavy on her eyes, he hated how every shed of clothes she took off revealed a firm body, discreet curves that he couldn't help but wonder... if no one had seen before.

Gendry hated her, he truly did. Because his pants got a little too tight as she submerged herself in the water and the fabric of her shift became a second skin.

"Arya."

Her eyes looked startled when she looked back at him. What did he want to say?

_ I can't want her. _She was unbearable. Infuriating. She irritated every inch of his skin.

_ She's a princess. _ And he was just a baseborn bastard with no name.

"Gendry?" Was her voice always so deep yet trembling? So teasing yet insecure? "What do you want?"

_I want you._

_ I want to fuck you. _

"I want to bathe too."

Arya blushed. For all her teasing, this time it was his turn to smirk as he pulled his layer out and entered the water in just his under breeches. Her eyes were dark as she took him in, and Gendry was close enough now to see how the wet white shift stuck to the pale skin of the upper part of her breast. When his eyes went up, he saw that she had caught him looking, and her arrogant smirk came back.

She walked towards him slowly. A part of him was irritated by the whole show, while another part of him felt the flame in his guts turn to wildfire as she stepped closer and closer. And something, in his chest, kept tugging his heartstrings as as he saw her bit her lip, as he heard her ragged breath, the smallest fickle of doubt in her eyes as she approached.

Gendry had had women before. Once back in King's Landing, and now and then at the Peach. Young maiden girls sought him out, perhaps because he was quiet and didn't drown in his cups, so they weren't scared of him getting rough or sharing too much tales with the other men.

But Gods, he had never _ wanted _ to touch a woman so badly. His fingertips were itchy, because she was right there, in near naked glory, approaching him like a hunter, or some river goddess, or just a girl who wanted him as much as he wanted her.

A shiver went down his spine, and he didn't know if it was the water or the fact that she was moving closer. Arya stood in front of him, a good head shorter than himself and her pale skin all goosebumps.

"Arya, I—"

Her lips were on his at once. Those soft little hands went up to grip his biceps, Gendry's own coming to rest at her hips. She was demanding yet not in any manner that bothered him. Quite the contrary. 

When he took her face in his hands to bend her head a little, she moaned into his mouth and Gendry felt as if the very core of him was both going to explode or twist itself into nothingness. All he knew is that he wanted her much closer.

Arya seemed to read his mind, because she pressed herself against him and he could feel every inch of her, her tits pressed against chest, her pelvis pushing against his own in a primal dance their bodies seemed to know the steps of.

He could take her ride there on the river's bank. And he had a feeling she might let him.

He tried to turn the kiss into a gentler union, but as soon as they separated for air, she was back to kissing him, her tongue insisting on passing his lips. Gendry groaned as he tasted her, feeling as if he was waves crashing against the walls of the Red Keep, as if all his force was nothing to her strength.

Her hands travelled to his head, holding onto him and twisting her body a little as his owns hands roamed down, down the wet material of her shift to her curved back and to cup her arse, pulling her even closer against him. She gasped at the feeling of his cock pressing into her core and it gave him an opening to kiss her cheek, the line of her jaw and her neck. As he bent her backwards a little to gain access, she grasped at his shoulders, his back, his arms or wherever her hands may reach. When their lips touched again, it was needy and desperate and a lot of sensations Gendry had never felt before.

The loud sound of a cracked branch jolted them apart. It was so abrupt that he tripped and fell entirely inside the water. 

"Fucking Hells!" he sputtered as he came out for a breath of air, "great."

He did not fancy explaining how he was dumb enough to get himself all drenched to the Brotherhood. Especially as Arya was already stepping out of the water.

"I better go find Weasel." The stubborn set of her jaw seemed at odds with the mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Why did you do that?" He lifted his arms sideways as he asked.

The answer she gave was so simple and straightforward yet explained so little to him while meaning so much that Gendry spent another hour just drying under the sun trying to _ think _ instead of just bask in the glory of their kiss.

“Because I wanted you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This thing ended up being MASSIVE so I left the bed sharing and the p0rn and subsequent angst and other juicy things for the second chapter lol, please review.
> 
> I accept title ideas!


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